Disposable gloves are mandatory equipment in many industries that require clean and/or sterile environments, e.g., the foodservice industry. The use of disposable gloves reduces the spread of viruses and other contaminants among individuals. In the foodservice industry, such contaminants are less likely to be transmitted from employees to food when employees regularly wear gloves, when employees frequently and regularly replace used gloves with new ones, and when gloves require little handling to be donned.
Many types of disposable gloves are known to and used by the foodservice industry. One type comprises two superimposed layers of thermoplastic film sealed together along their peripheries, leaving an opening for a hand to be inserted between the two layers. A two-layered disposable mitt is shown in Crinberg U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,099, and a method of forming such a mitt is shown in Bradfield U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,322. (It is intended that the word ‘glove’ include both multi-finger mitts and five-finger gloves.)
Disposable gloves are generally sold in stacked units containing a supply of gloves layered one on top of the other. Gloves may be sold in a dispenser, such as a paperboard box, which encloses the stack and from which gloves may be removed one at a time. (A glove is typically removed in the manner that a paper tissue is removed from a tissue dispenser.) A box dispenser thus provides a simple and economical means for protecting the stored gloves from contamination and for dispensing the gloves. Variations of box dispensers for disposable gloves are shown in McLaughlin U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,293 and Hoffrichter U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,682.
Box dispensers also have several drawbacks. For example, a disposable glove is often difficult to don after removing it from a box dispenser. Upon being dispensed, the glove may have creases and/or be folded, requiring a user to straighten it out before donning it. A user may have difficulty first finding and then separating the glove opening into which the hand is inserted. Therefore additional dispensing configurations have also been developed. One such configuration comprises a stack (or ‘saddle’) of disposable gloves held together by a heat-fused detachable portion of the gloves, which portion may be covered by a flap as shown in Klecena U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,741. The gloves advantageously remain flat as they are removed from the detachable portion, in order to facilitate the process of donning them after they are removed. However, as is the case with the box dispensers, a glove must first be removed from the stack before it is donned.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved configuration for a disposable glove system whereby a disposable glove may be donned more easily and quickly than heretofore. The new and improved system of the present invention is especially valuable in the foodservice industry, where efficiencies in the nature of time-saving and in the ease and simplicity of donning the gloves result in significantly increased productivity and enhanced hygiene. It is a further object of the invention to provide a disposable glove rack from which a glove can be removed and donned more easily, more quickly, and more safely, in order to encourage the frequent and regular replacement of used gloves with new ones.